Vil Gravis finds another board in 19WED
This one came from Wednesday 11/5 Week 19 of the X-Club deals. Don't check it out on the website before you look at the problem that I will put in front of you. Here it is:
You are declarer in 4S and the lead is the JACK OF DIAMONDS. How will you plan your play?
This is the set up when the dummy comes down:
 63 |
 AJ3 |
 A875432 |
 5 |
| AKJT95 |
| 76 |
| K |
| AQT8 |
Here is what a competent declarer should be thinking: where are my potential TRICKS and where are my potential LOSERS?
In terms of tricks, there would seem to be plenty of top as well as potential tricks: top tricks FIVE spades given that you may lose to the queen; TWO diamond tricks if the ace is not ruffed. ONE heart, the ace, and the ace of clubs, but that still makes ONLY NINE. But there are more POTENTIAL tricks, like ruffing a club in dummy or finessing a club so this one should be easy.
Look at your losers and don't simply settle for making the easy tricks. Use you assets properly and think through what you're going to do. If you simply draw out the trumps, you can then lead a heart to dummy's ace and discard your heart loser on the ace of diamonds. Then you are left with your clubs. You can lead the five and finesse, either the ten or the queen, and later, who knows, you may make a second club. But a competent declarer, as well as thinking along these lines, will realise that, with the potential club losers, there is a much better way to play this hand.
Because the club finesse will need to be taken anyway, do it immediately. You are in no danger, because even if the club finesse loses, you will still be able to play the hand the way you want to. If the club finesse loses, a trump switch will come round to your trump holding and you may not have a trump loser. So, first move after winning the king of diamonds, should be, NOT to draw trumps, but to cross to dummy's ace of hearts and discard the losing heart from hand on the ace of diamonds. If the ace of diamonds is ruffed, as indeed is possible if the defender on lead has led his singleton, too bad.
If the ace of diamonds holds, you are now in a position to take the club finesse. Because you don't want to lose more than one club trick, the best option is to finesse to the queen. Then, if it holds, you can play ace and another and ruff it. If all goes well, come to hand with a heart ruff and ruff another club with the carefully preserved second trump in dummy. Then, when you have been really lucky and everything has gone like clockwork, you can worry about whether you have a trump loser, because that is all you have got left in your hand. Taking the club finesse before playing on trumps may not be a good idea on a HEART lead though, because that has exposed a heart loser, so best play then is to lead a diamond to the king, ace of clubs and ruff a club and discard the heart loser on the ace of diamonds. Then play to ruff a third club.
Now take a look at the full deal the way your friendly computer dealt it, and then take a look at all the results across the board on the “X-Club” files. That should be interesting and quite illuminating. Think about your answers to these questions before I show you the full deal, which was:
Board 11 Dealer S Nil Vul
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